Acadia Gateway Facility Opens Making it Easier for Tourists and Locals to Get Around

Travelling around Acadia National Park is becoming easier. That’s thanks to the Island Explorer Gateway Center that had its grand opening on Friday.The Gateway Center will be a place for folks to park their cars before boarding one of the free Island Explorer shuttles to locations around Acadia.The facility is also home to the transit systems’ administrative offices and it’s where the buses will be maintained and stored.While tourists are the majority of the passengers on those buses, locals take the transit system to get around Hancock County.”Island Explorer carries 20% of its passengers, actually over 20% of its passengers are local folks who use the bus system to recreate, to commute to and from work, to get out for evenigs out and all tjhat sort of things so it serves much moer than the tourist industry,” said Paul Murphy, General Manager of Downeast Transportation Inc.The $14.7 million dollar facility was funded through money from the Federal Transit Administration, along with some state bonds.